The former Gujarat Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, who resigned from the BJP on Saturday, has announced the formation of Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP).
Mr. Patel (84), who will be the founder-president of the party, was flanked by another former Chief Minister, Suresh Mehta, and the former Union Minister, Kashiram Rana, besides Mahagujarat Janata Party (MJP) president Gordhan Jhadafiya, while announcing the formation of the party.
Mr. Patel said the MJP would soon be merged with the new outfit, after which the rest of the office-bearers of the GPP would be named.
Criticising Chief Minister Narendra Modi who, he said, was “working hard to erode the pride of Gujarat,” Mr. Patel assured the people that his party, if voted to power, would work to remove the “problems and hardships” facing them in the “Modi misrule”, and would also strive to restore “Gujarat’s pride.” He said the GPP would put up candidates on all the 182 seats in the Assembly in the elections in December.
The announcement of the formation of the party was greeted with loud cheers by Mr. Patel’s supporters, and Mr. Jhadafiya claimed that many leaders from the BJP as well as the Congress would join the new party.
